Before anything else, I
should thank you again for the trip you made to Tehran together with Sir
Teddy Taylor MP, and your efforts to help have my friend, Mr Jamil Bassam
and myself released.

As I explained in our
meeting in Tehran, I was sent to Syria in April 2003 on a visa issued by the
Syrian embassy in London, to help members
and supporters of the Mojahedin Khalq Organisation (MKO) in Iraq who, since
the start of the war, were now trying to escape from that country. All my
efforts in the ten days prior to my arrest on the border were spent trying
to sort out these people’s transit problems with border officials so that
they could be transferred to Europe through Syria. I engaged the office of
the UNHCR and the Red Cross in Damascus but all my efforts and the
intervention of these offices proved futile.

On Friday 18 April 2003, I
was ordered to go with Jamil Bassam to Boukamal on the Iraq-Syria border to
await some baggage which was being sent from Iraq. At the same time a
village woman had been arrested and was being questioned at the custom
office of Boukamal border. She had brought seven suitcases from Iraq which
contained around two million US dollars in cash, a box full of gold and
jewellery, tens of passports, and documents and pictures belonging to the
Mojahedin organisation, including pictures taken of the aftermath of the
bombardment of the military bases of the National Liberation Army by the
American and British forces, and video and audio tapes and computer disks
and other documents which clearly identified the source of the suitcases as
the MKO. As I was already known at Boukamal as an Iranian directly involved
in helping escaping MKO personnel, their suspicion fell on me and I was
arrested shortly after the arrest of the woman. I was taken to where the
suitcases were being examined. The woman said that some Iranians whom she
did not know had paid her to take the suitcases across the border and to
deliver them to some unknown people on this side of the border, and that she
did not have any knowledge of the contents of the suitcases. Confronted by
this situation, I was caught off guard and simply denied all knowledge of
the event. My friend Mr Bassam was not known in the area and was not
arrested. After I did not return to him, he called the MKO in Paris and
asked what he should do. He was told to go and claim the baggage and bring
it with him. When Mr Bassam came into the customs office for the baggage he
was also arrested. We were separated and taken to Damascus immediately for
investigation and interrogation.

Exactly seven weeks after
our arrest, on Thursday 5th July 2003, the Syrian agents who told
us we were to be deported to the UK, transferred us instead to Iran and we
were taken to Evin Prison.

It was only later I
discovered that almost immediately we were transferred to Iran, the National
Council of Resistance (NCR) issued three different statements announcing our
transfer and alleging that we are under torture and awaiting execution.
Later the NCR demanded our release and return to Britain. I also found out
that a Parliamentary Ad Hoc Committee had been organised under your
directive and with the involvement of some other British MPs, to effect
pressure on Iran to free us.

Since finding this out, the
question which has preyed on my mind and which I mention in this letter in
the hope of getting an answer directly from your good self is why the news
of mine and my friend's arrest and imprisonment in Syria was kept secret by
the organisation for the full seven weeks that we were under interrogation
there? Why didn't the NCR inform international human rights organisations or
even my brother or my daughter who live in Britain. Why did the NCR not
issue any statement at that time and why was no committee formed then for
our release? I am sure you would agree that such measures taken from the
beginning would most probably have prevented our transfer to Iran. This kind
of action would also have allowed the NCR to explain its own position as
regards the arrest of two of its members on a political mission and could
have shed some light on the affair. I am very interested to know what
stopped the organisation from informing my brother or my daughter so that at
the very least they could do whatever possible to help in this situation.

When we met in Tehran, my
daughter complained bitterly about this and said that if she had known about
my arrest from the start, she and her husband would have found the best
lawyers in the UK and would have travelled to Syria straight away to do
whatever possible to ensure my safe return to London. I am sure that had my
brother and his wife been informed, they also would have activated their own
connections which are numerous.

My daughter told me that
she contacted Amnesty International as soon as she was put in the picture
but that officials at AI were also complaining of not being told sooner, and
told her that if they had known of our arrest while we were in Syria, they
could have intervened directly as well as through other channels in Syria
and could have secured our safe return to London. I also met with the
representative of the UNHCR in Tehran and he said that if we had asked for
help while in Syria, considering that we had political asylum from the UK,
they could have forced the Syrian officials to return us to Britain.

The next thing I would like
to ask you is more on behalf of my daughter than myself and that is about
the pressure which was brought to bear on her by the organisation's agents
in Britain to participate in some activities against the Islamic Republic of
Iran using the allegations of the torture of me and my friend or the alleged
preparations to execute us. This was to the extent that even though she had
just given birth to a baby, they asked her to go to London and commit self
immolation outside parliament as a protest. An act which according to my
daughter's consultation with several legal bodies, human rights
organisations and others, including the Foreign Office would have done
nothing to help my situation or gain my freedom, and might in all
probability have had a negative effect. The advice she received from all
those she consulted was that direct contact with the Iranian Embassy in
London and a visit to Iran would be the most effective way to ensure our
freedom. And of course, that is what she has done. It is necessary to
mention of course, that the Baroness Emma Nicholson, Sir Teddy Taylor MP,
the UNHCR representative and may others have met with me and Jamil Bassam in
Evin and are seriously monitoring and following our legal situation and
court cases in Iran.

The next question is one in
which I am more personally interested. I would like to put to you that after
your visit to Tehran and to Evin prison and your return to Britain, what
activities have been performed in the framework of your Parliamentary Ad Hoc
Committee to help us and how active has the Committee been? Has the
Committee stopped its work totally? Is there any reason that the case is not
being followed any more? It was expected that this Committee would announce
its report and explain its work and its achievements. But it appears that
after your trip to Iran and the meetings which you had with me and Jamil
Bassam, the activities of the Committee have been put on hold for some
unknown reason. What are the reasons behind this sudden cessation in
activities? As far as I know my brother and my daughter were and are very
keen about the continuation of any support.

Another question concerns
the nature of the Committee itself. Is (or was) the Committee only
interested in freedom for me and my friend or does it have concern for other
members of the organisation? As you saw in Evin prison, there are several
other people who had been sent to Iran to carry out terrorist activities, in
particular between June 1998 and July 2001. Some had been arrested before
they acted and some after. Some have been sentenced and some, like me and my
friend, are awaiting trial. And of course, some have already been released.
They have all acknowledged damaging property and endangering the lives of
innocent civilian people. Has this Committee any program to scrutinize these
cases? Is it at all interested in them? Does it know about or does it want
to know about them?

I have also been informed
that there are several hundreds of NLA members in Iraq who have separated
from the Mojahedin and who do not want to stay with the organisation to
carry out military operations against the Islamic Republic of Iran. They are
now being held in a separate part of the camp under the supervision of the
American army in Iraq. Those who have managed to escape from the camp
emphasise that conditions in that part of the camp are very bad. I would
like to know if your Committee would like to help these people? After all,
the number of them is not small. Surely a widespread and coordinated action
to help and release them from this situation is necessary. I ask your
Committee which was put together for humanitarian reasons to act on this
very humanitarian disaster and needful situation.

Finally, I would like to
ask you and the other members of your Committee to ensure the effect of your
work by travelling to Iran and Iraq in person or as groups and to especially
visit the places in which the MKO are held under the supervision of American
forces in Iraq and also to act in the interests of the arrested people in
Iraq to ensure their freedom.